AGITATING SENSATIONS. 
349 
after the passage of a star over the meridian, consequently 
within a few minutes of the same point of true time.* 
The earthquake of the 4th of November, the first I had 
felt, made the greater impression on me, as it was accom- 
panied with remarkable meteorological variations. It was, 
moreover, a positive movement upward and downward, and 
not a shock by undulation. I did not then imagine, that 
after a long abode on the table-lands of Quito and the coasts 
of Peru, I should become almost as familiar with the abrupt 
movements of tbe ground as we are in Europe witb tlic 
sound of thunder. In tbe city of Quito, we never thought 
of rising from our beds when, during tbe night, subterra- 
neous rumblings (bramidos), which seem always to come 
from the volcano of Pichincha, announced a shock, the force 
of which, however, is seldom in pi’oportion to the intensity 
of the noise. The indifibrcnce of the inhabitants, who hear 
in mind that for three centuries past their city has not been 
destroyed, readily communicates itself to the least intrepid 
traveller. It is not so much the fear of tho danger, as the 
novelty of the sensation, which makes so forcible an impres- 
sion when the effect of the slightest earthquake is felt for 
the first time. 
Prom our infancy, tho idea of certain contrasts becomes 
fixed in our minds : water appears to us an element that 
moves; earth, a motionless and inert mass. These impressions 
are the result of daily experience : they are connected with 
every thing that is transmitted to us by the senses. When 
the shock of an earthquake is felt, when the earth which 
we had deemed so stable is shaken on its old foundations, 
one instant suffices to destroy long-fixed illusions. . It is like 
awakening from a dream; but a painful awakening. We 
feel that we have been deceived by the apparent stability 
of nature ; we become observant of the least noise ; we 
mistrust for the first time the soil we have so long trod 
witb confidence. But if the shocks be repeated, it they 
become frequent during several successive days, the un- 
certainty quickly disappears. In 1784, the inhabitants of 
Mexico were accustomed to bear tbe thunder roll beneath 
* M. Arago and I paid a great deal of attention to this phenomenon 
during a long series of observations made in the year 1809 and 1810, at 
the Observatory of Paris, with the view of verifying the declination of th 
stars. 
